NWS confirms three tornadoes in Floyd County; Residents received no warning
May 8—FLOYD COUNTY — Three tornadoes touched down on Sunday in Floyd County, and people in the area didn't receive a warning ahead of time.
According to meteorologists and emergency professionals, the twisters spun up too quickly for alerts to be issued and sirens only sound following an official tornado warning.
"The tornado sirens did not go off yesterday because there was no tornado warning issued," said Floyd County Emergency Management Agency Deputy Director Jason Mauch on Monday. "The sirens are activated during a tornado warning."
Last month, three tornado sirens in Floyd County malfunctioned during severe weather and didn't sound an alarm.
Mauch said the sirens were just tested on Saturday and are "functional." Sirens are tested the first Saturday of each month at noon.
"Other ways people in our community can prepare (for severe weather) is by having a weather radio and also signing up for our code red alert system, which sends you a text message," Mauch said.
National Weather Service Meteorologist Jessica Lee said a third tornado from Sunday's storm was confirmed Monday. She said it had a short track just east of Hamby Road near Georgetown.
She said it was an EF-1 tornado with 90 mile-per-hour winds.
Two other tornadoes in New Albany, including one that tore through the Indiana University Southeast campus and damaged a nearby apartment complex, were confirmed on Sunday.
"(The IUS tornado) was on the ground for less than a minute," said NWS meteorologist Ron Steve. "That doesn't give us any real opportunity to see it on radar. And that's why there was no time for us to issue a tornado warning."
Steve said a severe thunderstorm warning was issued after the tornado.
"Sometimes those spin-ups happen," Steve said.
The line of storms that was approaching New Albany was not producing severe weather until it hit Floyd County.
"Again, when a storm intensifies rapidly, it's very tricky to actually warn on when they go from not being severe to dropping a tornado," he said. "We're not in Oklahoma, where you see storms that show impressive radar signatures for hours on end."
New Albany City Council member Josh Turner said three tornado sirens in Floyd County had malfunctioned last month during storms, but they were tested and functioned correctly over the weekend.
"It's Mother Nature, she's undefeated and you never really know," Turner said. "It's always best practice to not rely on sirens."
He said anyone who is dealing with debris should call the city.
"I would encourage everyone if they have any debris, I have talked to the street department," Turner said. "If they can get the limbs and branches out to the street they schedule the street department to have them pick that up."
New Albany Mayor Jeff Gahan was on the scene of the tornadoes on Sunday and visited an apartment that had its roof torn off near IUS.
"(My first thought was) I'm just so lucky I'm talking to the person that lived there, because things could've been so much different," Gahan said. "She could've been in the hospital and not able to talk, that's how violent the scene was."
He said he is proud of the public safety response to the tornadoes.
"I can't thank them enough, and I'm talking about a large group of folks, New Albany Fire Department, New Albany Police Department, Floyd County EMA, EMS," Gahan said. "We got some help from folks at Clark County as well. We got a lot of help from the Salvation Army. Our Street department was hard at work that morning, our building commissioner was on the job. I am very proud of the response that took place Sunday morning."
